Here’s where you can get antibody treatment in KY to fight severe COVID-19.
Similar to finding a location that offers a COVID-19 test or vaccine, Kentuckians can now search for health care facilities near them that provide monoclonal antibody treatment.
Late Thursday afternoon, state Department for Public listed 51 regional sites on kycovid19.ky.gov where residents, once they’re deemed eligible, can access this form of therapy. Monoclonal antibody treatment is offered to some at-risk people recently diagnosed with the virus to help stave off severe infection that might otherwise land them in the hospital.
But because of high national demand, “these supplies are limited,” Public Health Commissioner Steven Stack said Thursday during a coronavirus news conference. This week, Kentucky received 6,114 treatments — 802 fewer than last week. Each state’s weekly case count and number of people hospitalized with the virus dictates how many antibody treatments it receives from the federal government, Stack said. Each state has to use at least 70% of the antibodies it receives it week in order to continue receiving as much, if not more.
Most locations offering the the treatment are hospitals, and about half are in Eastern Kentucky, including CHI Saint Joseph London, multiple Appalachian Regional Healthcare locations, St. Claire Regional Medical Center in Morehead, Baptist Health Corbin, Pikeville Medical Center and King’s Daughters Medical Center in Ashland.
In Lexington, it’s offered at the Bluegrass Community Health Center and Saint Joseph Health Lexington.
One must be least 12-years-old, have mild to moderate symptoms of COVID-19, and live with an at-risk health condition in order to qualify, including obesity, diabetes or chronic lung disease. A physician referral or clinician evaluation is required.
State and federal health officials continue to urge people not to prioritize monoclonal antibody therapy as a primary means of treating COVID-19. Inoculation is the best way to protect against severe coronavirus infection and death.
In a meeting with Kentucky Hospital Association officials and hospital administrators on Thursday, White House Vaccinations Coordinator Dr. Bechara Choucair urged Kentuckians to “focus on prevention of [COVID-19] by getting vaccinated instead of waiting to be treated after getting sick,” KHA said in a news release after the meeting.
Choucair reminded people reluctant to get vaccinated that monoclonal antibody therapies are under the same emergency use authorization as two of the three available vaccines, with Pfizer-BioNTech having received full approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration earlier this summer.
Though the state doesn’t have control over its weekly allocation of antibody treatments, “The last two weeks we have not been able to meet 100% of the requested doses, but we’ve been able to come close,” Stack said, adding that demand for this form of treatment has gone down in recent weeks.
This likely correlates with a steadily declining rates of new COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and positivity rate. “All of those are pointing in the right direction, so it’s reasonable to see that the demand for these antibody treatments is also going down,” Stack said.
But deaths have yet to drop off. In the last two days, the state has reported 135 virus deaths — 82 of which were on Wednesday — and 6,403 new cases. The statewide positivity rate on Thursday was 10.08%, up slightly from Wednesday’s 10.05%.
There were 1,976 people hospitalized with the virus on Thursday, 566 in an intensive care unit, and 381 breathing on a ventilator. That’s markedly down from two weeks ago, on Sept. 16, when 2,453 people were in the hospital with COVID-19 statewide, 667 were in an ICU, and 448 were on a ventilator.
While “we have seen hospitalizations decrease and now ICU utilization decrease over the past seven days,” Beshear said, many hospitals are still straining under the weight of a coronavirus patient influx. On Thursday, 67% of the state’s acute care hospitals had critical staffing shortages, and statewide, only 131 adult ICU beds were available, he said.
Nearly 2.7 million people in the state have received a COVID-19 vaccination; 73% of adults — 60% of all Kentuckians — have received at least one dose. Half the population is fully vaccinated. More than 4,800 people received a dose between Wednesday and Thursday.
Beshear, during his bi-weekly news conference Thursday, announced the state was launching a “media campaign” this fall and winter about the importance of the vaccine and the acute and long-term dangers of the virus. It will include voices of people who’ve been vaccinated and those who’ve lost a loved one to the virus.
It’ll also target Kentuckians under the age of 40 — the age groups that, more than any other, are currently driving spread in the commonwealth.
“We’re going to talk about the cost of being hospitalized,” Beshear said, “even when you have health care coverage, versus the cost of the vaccine, which is free.”
This story was originally published September 30, 2021 at 2:40 PM.
